Working Waterfront

Digging into history, learning from the children

Reflections is a monthly column written by Island Fellows, recent college grads who do community service work on Maine islands and in remote coastal communities through the Island Institute, publisher of The Working Waterfront. It was most certainly the highest, most nausea-inducing point on the entire island. I closed my eyes.… SEE MORE

Passengers disembark from the Islesboro ferry in Lincolnville Beach.

Working Waterfront

Ferry service is part of our civic infrastructure

Sometimes it’s important to begin by stating the obvious. Ferry service is not optional for island communities—they live or die by it. The allocation of resources across the islands served by the Maine State Ferry Service tends to divide, rather than unite communities. Islesboro is the clear loser in the… SEE MORE

The ferry departs Lincolnville for Islesboro.

Working Waterfront

Ferry service chooses rate increase plan, Islesboro hit hardest

A new Maine State Ferry Service rate plan will be implemented beginning May 21. The new fare structure eliminates the on-island discount in favor of a price consistent at both mainland and island terminals, and also is consistent among the six islands the state ferries serve: Frenchboro, Swan’s Island, Islesboro,… SEE MORE

Working Waterfront

An unexpected loss reminds us how we should live

In May I usually write about how crazy busy it is, and how fast the month goes, and what a relief it is to finally see signs of spring, like blooming daffodils, buds on the trees, and returning songbirds. Carpenters, caretakers, fishermen, boat builders, painters, gardeners, artists, and craftspeople all… SEE MORE

Working Waterfront

Letters to the editor

Emergency ferry runs more complicated I am writing in response to the article, “Ferry Service impacted with rising emergency trips,” in the April edition of The Working Waterfront. As a resident of Swan’s Island, diagnosed with late stage ovarian cancer in 2016 and living with an ongoing issue of small bowel… SEE MORE

Working Waterfront

My love affair with hot water

We go back a long way, hot water and I. It has been passionately hot, torrid in fact, water up to my belly button, floating bubbles in the tub, splashing all around my fists and caressing my wrists in a dishpan, gushing from the faucet when I turn it on.… SEE MORE

A summer scene on Great Cranberry Island.

Working Waterfront

April’s hope supplants March’s misery

Year-round residents of the Cranberry Isles have just made it through a rough end of winter to face the fickle brown month of April. In February, the ice-rain-ice weather had yards looking like skating rinks. March had its own kind of nastiness with endless wet snow and high winds causing… SEE MORE

Working Waterfront

An island is a cruise ship

As I write this on April 2, spring is teasing its way to North Haven. A few brave bulbs have bloomed, pussy willows are in full force, and the sun has encouraged a few afternoon walks. Today the sun through a haze of clouds looks suspiciously snow-like, although temperatures are… SEE MORE

Working Waterfront

North Haven Community School seeks magnet students for unique high school experience

Maine’s smallest K-12 public school, located on a Penobscot Bay island, is seeking high school magnet students for the 2018-2019 school year. North Haven Community School, which has a total enrollment of approximately 65 students K-12, hosted two magnet students during the 2017-2018 school year, and hopes to add more.… SEE MORE

Working Waterfront

Long Island builds on-island wellness clinic

Amy Tierney didn’t plan on making health a focus of her volunteer work on her native Long Island, but she was dealt a responsibility she couldn’t—and wouldn’t—ignore. Her father, a mechanic at Johnson’s Boat Yard on the Casco Bay island, was suffering with lung cancer, and she became his caretaker.… SEE MORE